I knew something wasn't quite right when I seconded the top pitch. It just felt really unstable but it's so impending. I can imagine how the whole thing must've just carved off. Shiver.
Simon Panton21 Dec 2005
In reply to Tom, UKC News Editor: Doesn't surprise really - I pulled a big block off the second pitch about 10 years ago.
Those cracks in the BMC photos are interesting. I suspect you kind find those along the whole of the top of St. Govans. It is an exposed bit of rock with nothing above it weighting it down. Mowing Word might be similar although it feels a bit more solid.
In reply to Alan James - UKC: Is that bit just visible in the left of the picture where there was a rockfall a few years back? Conscientious Objector? Have there been big storms recently?
Damn, did it with one fall a few years ago have been meaning to go back and just do the first pitch.
Nearly killed my girlfriend on the hanging belay that day. I literally touched a TV sized block on the top pitch. It fell silently and missed her by less a metre.
Yeah, I pulled a block off the top pitch. Also pulled a block off Lost Leaders earlier in the same day. I've pulled/been nearly hit by more blocks at Pembroke than anywhere else. It seems much worse than Gogarth for it, because often it looks totally solid.
Considering the classic routes inc wraith, consientious objector, public enemy have bitten the dust. Has anyone got a 'must do list of routes' that are likely to fall down soon.
Gareth
woodster21 Dec 2005
In reply to Gareth H: The top right hand side of the Wolfman Jack wall, Lundy feels like it's resting on a single chockstone which is slowly being crushed. My mate Si is sure he felt the whole lot move a few mm...
Simon Panton21 Dec 2005
In reply to Tom, UKC News Editor: Come to think of it, I had another near miss with a loose block, further left along the crag. I was belaying at the bottom of an E3 (Raw Recruits, I think?) and my mate had disappeared up the top section cruising away, when suddenly a television sized chunk of limestone landed about 2 metres to my right.
There was a bit of a trundle done of some loose blocks there over the summer, up on the top of Venus Flytrap somewhere. You're thinking larger than that?
I think the ephemeral nature of sea-cliffs rather adds to their atttraction and gives you an ideal bullshit stance "When I did it it was disintegrating before my very eyes etc etc"
Must do routes before they go?.....Swanage and the Old Man of Hoy
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...